Ivory Coast national football team

Côte d'Ivoire

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	Les Éléphants (The Elephants)
Association	Fédération Ivoirienne de Football
Head coach	To Be Advised
Captain	Didier Drogba
Most caps	Cyrille Domoraud & Bonaventure Kalou (51)
Top scorer	Didier Drogba (24)
FIFA code	CIV
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	20
First international
Côte d'Ivoire 3 - 2 Dahomey (Madagascar; 13 April, 1960)
Biggest win
Côte d'Ivoire 6 - 0 Mali (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; 13 March, 1985) Côte d'Ivoire 6 - 0 Botswana (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; 11 October, 1992) Côte d'Ivoire 6 - 0 Niger (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; 15 July, 2000) Côte d'Ivoire 6 - 0 Madagascar (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; 1 July, 2001)
Biggest defeat
Côte d'Ivoire 2 - 6 Ghana (Côte d'Ivoire; 2 May, 1971) Malawi 5 - 1 Côte d'Ivoire (Malawi; 6 July, 1974)
World Cup
Appearances	1 (first in 2006)
Best result	Round 1, 2006
African Cup of Nations
Appearances	16 (first in 1965)
Best result	Winners, 1992

The Côte d'Ivoire national football team (sometimes written "Ivory Coast" in English), nicknamed Les Éléphants (The Elephants), is the national team of Côte d'Ivoire and is controlled by the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football. Until 2005, their greatest accomplishment was winning the 1992 African Cup of Nations against Ghana on penalties at the Stade de l'Amitie in Dakar, Senegal.

On October 8, 2005, they qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, marking their first appearance on the sport's greatest stage. They were unable to qualify for the second round after losing to experienced teams such as Argentina and Netherlands. They did manage to win one game in Germany, against Serbia and Montenegro, coming back from down 0-2 to win 3-2 on a late penalty kick by Bonaventure Kalou.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1970 - Did not enter
• 1974 - Did not qualify
• 1978 - Did not qualify
• 1982 - Did not enter
• 1986 to 2002 - Did not qualify
• 2006 - Round 1

African Nations Cup record

1957 to 1963 - Did not enter 1965 - First Place 1968 - Third place 1970 - Fourth place 1972 - Did not qualfy 1974 - Round 1 1976 - Did not qualify 1978 - Disqualified 1980 - Round 1 1982 - Did not enter 1984 - Round 1

1986 - Third place 1990 - Round 1 1992 - Champions 1994 - Third place 1996 - Round 1 1998 - Quarterfinals 2000 - Round 1 2002 - Round 1 2004 - Did not qualify 2006 - Runner Up

Famous past players

• Laurent Pokou: the African Cup highest scorer of all time
• Yousouf Falikou Fofana: "The Black Diamond of Monaco"
• Abdoulaye Traore: named as one of the greatest forwards in the world several times in the 1990s.

2006 World Cup Squad

Head coach: Henri Michel

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club
1	1GK	Jean-Jacques Tizié	7 September 1972	26	Espérance
2	3MF	Kanga Akalé	7 March 1981	25	AJ Auxerre
3	2DF	Arthur Boka	2 April 1983	26	RC Strasbourg
4	2DF	Kolo Touré	19 March 1981	44	Arsenal
5	3MF	Didier Zokora	14 December 1980	41	Tottenham Hotspur
6	2DF	Blaise Kouassi	2 February 1975	37	Troyes
7	3MF	Emerse Faé	24 January 1984	14	Nantes Atlantique
8	4FW	Bonaventure Kalou	12 January 1978	51	Paris Saint-Germain
9	4FW	Arouna Koné	11 November 1983	20	PSV Eindhoven
10	3MF	Gilles Yapi Yapo	30 January 1982	27	Young Boys
11	4FW	Didier Drogba*	11 March 1978	34	Chelsea
12	2DF	Abdoulaye Méïté	6 October 1980	20	Bolton Wanderers
13	2DF	Marc Zoro	27 December 1983	13	Messina
14	4FW	Bakari Koné	17 September 1981	19	OGC Nice
15	4FW	Aruna Dindane	26 November 1980	37	RC Lens
16	1GK	Gérard Gnanhouan	12 February 1979	6	Montepellier
17	2DF	Cyrille Domoraud	22 July 1971	51	US Creteil
18	3MF	Kader Keïta	6 August 1981	28	Lille OSC
19	3MF	Yaya Touré	13 May 1983	17	Olympiakos
20	3MF	Guy Demel	13 June 1981	7	Hamburger SV
21	2DF	Emmanuel Eboué	4 June 1983	14	Arsenal
22	3MF	Romaric Koffi Ndri	4 June 1983	9	Le Mans
23	1GK	Boubacar Barry	30 December 1979	7	KSK Beveren

(*=Captain)

Côte d'Ivoire was the only nation to name a 23-man World Cup squad comprised entirely of players who play their club football outside their home country.

2006 World Cup Information

The Côte d'Ivoire lost their opening game 2-1 in the World Cup in Germany to an Argentine side seeded one place above them. The goals for Argentina came from Chelsea's Hernan Crespo and Javier Saviola of Sevilla. Ivory Coast's goal came from another Chelsea striker, Didier Drogba. Despite dominating Holland for long periods, they lost their second match by the same scoreline and were thus eliminated from the tourament. Goals for Holland: Robin Van Persie at the 23rd minute on free-kick, Ruud Van Nistelrooij at the 27th minute. Goal for Ivory Coast: Bakary Kone at the 38th minute.

Trivia

The Côte d'Ivoire team is notable for having participated in (and won) the two highest-scoring penalty shoot-outs in international football competition - the 21-shot shoot-out in the final of the 1992 African Cup of Nations when Ghana was defeated 11-10, and the 24-shot shoot-out in the quarter-final of the 2006 African Cup of Nations, when Cameroon was defeated 12-11.

External links

• Côte d'Ivoire Association - official website
• Reports on Ivory Coast Matches at the 2006 World Cup